Shoemaking tool



Aug..17, 1937. J,FAUSSE 2,089,951

SHOEMAKING TOOL Filed Aug. 27, 1936 Patented Aug. 17, 1937 UNETED STATES gotten PATENT OFFIQE SHOEMAKING TOOL Application August 27, 1936, Serial No. 98,180

13 Claims.

The present invention relates to tools for use in the manufacture of shoes, and more particularly, to tools for use in shaping uppers over lasts, and is herein illustrated as embodied in a tool particularly adapted to operate on uppers provided with outturned sole-attaching flanges, and especially, pre-welted uppers, that is, uppers in the manufacture of which a welt is stitched to the lasting margin before the upper is lasted.

In preparing pre-welted uppers for lasting in a machine of the bed type such, for example, as that disclosed in United States Letters Patent No. 2,045,595, granted June 30, 1936 on an application of Hall et al., it has been found desirable to turn or bend the welt outwardly from the upper, particularly at the toe end of the upper, in order to enable the lasting wipers of the machine readily to enter the angle between the lasting margin of the upper and the upper-attaching face of the welt. It is an object of the present invention to provide a tool which will effect the desired bending or turning of the welt during the operation of tensioning or pulling the upper heightwise of the last in preparation for the lasting operation.

With the above object in view a feature of the present invention comprises a tool for use in the manufacture of pre-welted shoes comprising a welt-engaging member, a fulcrum member upon which the tool rocks during its operative movement, said welt-engaging member being constructed and arranged to bend the welt outwardly from the upper during such rocking movement of the. tool. The illustrated tool is'provided with a work-engaging member constructed and arranged to engage the upper-attaching face of the welt and the outer surface of the upper adjacent to the welt and is provided with a cooperating work-engaging member constructed and arranged to engage the .inner surface of the welted margin of the upper.

Pincers of the illustrative type commonly employed in the lasting of shoes have relatively narrow welt-engaging jaws and it is usually necessary in pulling the toe portion of an upper over a last to operate successively on several portions of its lasting margin. It is a further object of the present invention to provide a tool which may be employed to pull the toe portion of an upper over a last in one operation.

To this end a further feature of the invention comprises a tool for use in the manufacture of shoes comprising a pair of gripper arms one of which isprovided with a concavo-convex end portion to concave face of which is constructed and arranged to engage an end face of a last and the convex portion of which is constructed and arranged to engage the inner surface of an end portion of an upper on the last.

These and other features of the invention will now be described with reference to the accom- 5 panying drawing and will be pointed out in the appended claims.

In the. drawing,

Fig. l is a side elevation illustrating the tool of the present invention in operation on a prewelted upper on its last;

Fig. 2 is a detail view in side elevation illustrating the toe end of a pre-welted upper on its last and the work-engaging members of the tool illustrated in Fig. l in their position at the end of their operation; and

Fig. 3 is a detail perspective view showing the work-engaging members in their open position.

The invention is herein illustrated as embodied in a tool for use in the manufacture of shoes which is similar in its main features to the tool illustrated in United States Letters Patent No. 322,338, granted July 14, 1885 on an application of H. P. Aldrich. The illustrated tool comprises a pair of arms I ll and I2 pivoted to each other between their ends by means of a halved joint l4. Between the joint l4 and its work-engaging end the arm I 2 has secured thereto a fulcrum block l6 which is similar to the fulcrum block of the tool illustrated in the patent above referred to. The arms Ill and I2 have secured to the inner surfaces of their operating ends I! and it? workengaging plates or jaws l8 and 20, respectively, which in their operative position, as illustrated in Fig. 1, extend generally heightwise of an upper on which they are operating, for example the pre-welted upper 22 illustrated in Fig. l. The plate is, as illustrated in Fig. 3, is curved transversely thereof to conform generally to the curvature of the toe portion of the upper 22 and is provided with a flange 24 which extends inwardly or in the direction of the plate 20 from the body portion of the plate (8 and is provided with notches 26 (Fig. 3) to facilitate the shaping of the plate. The plate 20 is provided with a narrow flange 28 which, as illustrated in Fig. 2, is positioned in the same plane as the flange 24 when the tool is closed on the upper. As illustrated in Fig. 1, the plate 20 receives the toe end of a last positioned in the upper, for example, the last 38 illustrated in Fig. 1, said plate being curved transversely thereof to conform generally to the curvature of the toe end of the last. The plate 20 provides a guiding surface upon which the toe end of the last slides as it is forced into the upper by the operation of the illustrated tool. When the tool is brought into engagement with the work the plates or jaws l8 and 29 are. so arranged that the edges of the flanges 24 and 28 engage the outer and inner surfaces, respectively, of the upper 22 adjacent to a seam 32 whereby a welt 34 is secured to the upper, and the upper surface of the flange 24 engages the edge of the Welt 3d at the apex of the angle defined by the outer edge face of the welt and its upper-attaching face. During the operation of the illustrated tool the jaws it and 2t move heightwise of the last 30 toward the last bottom. During such movement of the jaws their edges slide on the upper and the outer jaw iii turns or bends the welt 3 from its position illustrated in Fig. 1 into its position illustrated in Fig. 2, in which position the flange 2 engages the upper-attaching face of the welt. At the end of the operating movement of the illustrated tool the welt 34 is slightly above the plane of the last bottom and lies in a plane substantially parallel to the plane of the last bottom and is therefore arranged for the entrance of toe-lasting wipers into the angle formed between the welt and the adjacent portion of the upper. For positioning the jaws l8 and 20 in proper operative position relatively to each other the arm H3 is provided with an abutment screw 36, one end of which engages the upper surface of the arm !2 to arrest the movement of the. jaws E8 and it toward each other with the edge faces of their respective flanges spaced from each other substantially to the extent of the thickness of the upper.

In operating on pre-welted uppers with the illustrated tool the last 3% is preferably mounted on a bench spindle, for example the spindle 38 illustrated in Fig. l, and the jaws l8 and 2B are closed on the toe portion of the upper 22 adjacent to the welt. The fulcrum block I6 is then brought into engagement with the bottom face of the last and the lasting tool is rocked about the block in a clockwise direction as seen in Fig. 1 until the flanges of said jaws have moved upwardly to a position heightwise of the last 38 in which the flanges of the jaws i8 and 25 are just above the plane of the last bottom and the flange 28 of the jaw Zil is free to move rearwardly of the last along its bottom surface to disengage said jaw from the upper. While the pro-welted upper may be secured to its last after the operation thereon by the illustrated tool by means of tacks driven through the welted margin of the upper and into the margin of the last bottom the illustrated tool is particularly adapted to be employed in practicing a method of manufacturing prewelted shoes disclosed in an application for United States Letters Patent, Serial No. 13,718, filed March 29, 1935 in the name of Karl Engel. in accordance with the method of the above application a pre-welted upper is pulled over the toe end of a last and retained in pulled over position on the last solely by the tension of its welt which is substantially shorter than the periphcry of the last bottom, a welt of the desired length being provided by gathering the upper, during the welt-attaching operation, in the man ner disclosed in the above application. Applying the method above referred to to operation of the illustrated tool, it will be seen that as the welted margin of the upper 22 is pulled heightwise of the last from its position in Fig. 1 to its position in Fig. 2 tension is imparted to the welt 3 3 by reason of the movement of the toe end of the welted margin forwardly of the last during its movement heightwise of the last and consequently when the illustrated tool has pulled the welted margin of the upper above the plane of the last bottom, as illustrated in Fig. 2, the welt 34 retracts, thereby drawing the welted margin at the toe end of the upper in over the margin of the last bottom sufficiently to hold the toe portion of the upper in the position on the last to which it'has been brought by the operation of the illustrated tool. See Fig. 2.

While the invention has been illustrated in its application to a tool particularly adapted to operate on the toe end of an upper it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its scope to tools adapted to operate on end portions only but in its broadest aspects it is applicable generally to tools for use in shaping uppers over lasts.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States is:

1. A tool for use in the manufacture of prewelted shoes comprising a welt-engaging member and a fulcrum member upon which the tool rocks during its operative movement, said weltengaging member being constructed and arranged to bend the welt outwardly from the upper during such rocking movement of the tool.

2. A tool for use in the manufacture of pre- Welted shoes comprising work-engaging members constructed and arranged to engage, respectively, the outer and inner surfaces of a pre-welted upper adjacent to the welt and to bend the welt outwardly from the upper during movement of said Work-engaging members generally heightwise of the upper.

3. A tool for use in the manufacture of prewelted shoes having a work-engaging flange constructed and arranged to engage the upper-attaching face of the welt and the outer surface of the upper adjacent to the welt, a work-engaging member constructed and arranged to engage the inner surface of the welted margin of the upper, and manually-operated means for moving said Work-engagingmembers toward each other.

4,. A tool "for use in the manufacture of pre' welted shoes comprising a work-engaging plate provided with a flange constructed and arranged to engage the upper-attaching face of the welt, means for moving said plate in a direction to tension the welted margin of a pre-welted upper heightwise of a form and simultaneously to bend the welt into sole-attaching position.

5. A tool for tensioning pre-welted uppers heightwise of their lasts comprising grippers having flanges constructed and arranged to grip the lasting margin of an upper without gripping the welt, means operating on the bottom of a last in the upper for effecting relative movement of the last and upper heightwise thereof, and means for guiding the last during such relative movement of the last and upper.

6. A tool for tensioning pre-welted' uppers heightwise of their lasts comprising a pair of operating members pivoted to each other between their ends, and a fulcrum block secured to one of said members and arranged to position the tool relatively to a pre-welted upper on its last by engagement with the bottom face of the last, characterized by the provision in said operating members of Work-engaging flanges which engage respectively the outer face and the inner face of the upper adjacent to the seam whereby the welt is secured to the upper.

7. A tool for tensioning pre-welted uppers heightwise of their lasts comprising a pair of operating members pivoted to each other between their ends and provided with flanges the edges of which engage, respectively, the outer face and the inner face of the upper adjacent to the seam whereby the Welt is secured to the upper, said flanges being arranged substantially at right angles to the adjacent portions of said operating members, and a stop carried by one of said members for arresting movement of said members toward each other.

8. A tool for tensioning pre-welted uppers heightwise of their lasts comprising operating arms pivoted to each other between their ends and arranged to engage, respectively, the outer surface and the inner surface of a pre-welted upper, the operating arm which engages the outer surface of the upper being provided with a flange constructed and arranged to engage the upperattaching face of the welt and the outer surface of the upper adjacent to the welt, the operating arm which engages the inner surface of the upper being constructed and arranged to engage a peripheral portion of a last in the upper thereby to guide the last during its movement into the upper.

9. A tool for tensioning pre-welted uppers heightwise of their lasts comprising operating arms pivoted to each other between their ends, one of which is arranged to operate on the outer surface of a pre-welted upper and is provided with a flange constructed and arranged to engage the upper-attaching face of the welt and the adjacent portion of the upper, and the other of which is arranged to engage the peripheral portion of a last in the upper thereby to guide the last during its movement into the upper and is provided with a flange constructed and arranged to engage the inner surface of the welted margin of the upper between the seam whereby the welt is secured to the upper and the edge of the upper, the edge of said flange being arranged to engage a portion of the inner surface of the upper opposite that portion of the outer surface which is engaged by the flange provided on the operating arm which engages said outer surface.

10. A tool for operating on pre-welted uppers comprising an outer work-engaging member con structed and arranged to engage the outer surface of the upper adjacent to the welt and also the upper-attaching face of the welt between the welt seam and the outer edge face of the welt, and an inner work-engaging member constructed and arranged to engage the adjacent edge faces of the welt and upper, the inner surface of the upper between the welt seam and the edge of the upper and a portion of the inner surface of the upper opposite that portion of the outer surface of the upper which is engaged by the outer work-engaging member.

11. A tool for use in the manufacture of shoes comprising a pair of gripper arms one of which is provided with a concavo-convex end portion the concave face of which is constructed and arranged to engage an end face of a last and the convex portion of which is constructed and arranged to engage the inner surface of an end portion of an upper on the last.

12. A tool for use in the manufacture of shoes comprising a pair of gripper arms each of which is provided with a concavo-convex end portion, the opposite faces of one of said end portions being arranged to engage, respectively, a peripheral portion of a form and an inner portion of an upper thereon.

13. A tool for use in the manufacture of prewelted shoes comprising a pair of gripper arms provided, respectively, with concavo-convex end portions having work-engaging flanges the edges of which are arranged to engage a pre-welted upper therebetween along a line adjacent to the seam whereby the welt is secured to the upper.

JOSEPH FAUSSE. 

